20 best New Zealand books of the 21st century: as chosen by experts

Last month, we enjoyed reading The New York Times Best Books of the 21st century – but were disappointed it included no Australian or New Zealand authors.

From New Zealand, even Booker winner Eleanor Catton and Women’s Prize longlisted Catherine Chidgey, writers whose books have made a significant impact in the US and UK, didn’t get a mention.

So, the Conversation’s Books & Ideas team decided to create our own Australian and New Zealand lists.

For Aotearoa New Zealand, we worked with The Conversation’s NZ editor Finlay Macdonald, a former book publisher and Listener editor. Together, we asked more than 20 local literary experts to each share their favourite NZ book of the century.

The result was a list of 20 top books, including titles by Catton and Chidgey, together with a rich treasure trove of honourable mentions (we allowed up to two each).

The three books that tied as the most picked were Jenny Bornholdt’s The Rocky Shore (2008), Chidgey’s The Axeman’s Carnival (2022) and Tina Makereti’s The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke (2018).

And what were our own picks?

Finlay’s top spot goes to Lloyd Jones’ The Book of Fame (2000), for turning rugby into art, with his honourable mention going to Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand (2003), for making local history a massive bestseller.

Books & Ideas editor Suzy Freeman-Greene and deputy editor Jo Case both chose Chidgey’s 1980s-set psychological thriller Pet (2002) as their very favourite, for its biting social observations and escalating menace.

Jo’s honourable mentions are Catton’s The Rehearsal (2008) and Emily Perkins’ Novel About my Wife (2008), while Suzy’s are Catton’s The Luminaries (2013) and Perkins’ Lioness (2023).

If you’d like to play this game too, scroll to the end of the article to leave a comment. We’ll share selected results in our Books & Ideas newsletter next Friday. (You can subscribe here if you don’t get it already.)